Editorial. Published Saturday, February 10, 2001, in the
Miami Herald
Jorge Mas, the chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation and
namesake son of its founder, proposed a more-active Cuban policy last week in a
speech to the Inter-American Dialogue. What follows are excerpts.
We need a new U.S. policy towards Cuba that actively seeks to empower the
Cuban people and promote their independence from the current regime. For 40
years, we have watched with great frustration as Fidel Castro has chained the
Cuban people to ration books and run Cuba as its sole employer to ensure the
political servitude of its people.
It is painfully clear that peaceful, positive change can only come to Cuba
if we begin to break the shackles of dependence forced on the Cuban people by
the Castro regime.
We believe there exists an opportunity today for the new Bush administration
to combine a reinvigorated political will with an activist policy.
- [The policy] would provide U.S. assistance to support peaceful,
pro-democracy activities by local Cuban independent entities. Resources should
include computers, printers, cellular phones, fax machines, Internet devices,
and the very latest in other communications equipment.
- We should also provide direct aid to families of prisoners of conscience,
especially those denied access to jobs by Cuban authorities or who have lost the
wages of an imprisoned spouse or parent. This not only for humanitarian reasons,
but also to counter the regime's continued, systematic campaign to decimate
Cuba's peaceful opposition.
- A crucial component of a new, activist U.S. policy should be to promote
free and independent enterprise in Cuba by strengthening the struggling
privately owned economic sector: the self-employed, home-based restaurants and
hostels, independent farmers, church-run clinics, private day-care centers, soup
kitchens.
- Another initiative worth contemplating is to exempt from the U.S. embargo
goods produced by verifiably self-employed Cubans. It sends an important
political message. The U.S. should as well consider allowing U.S. businesses to
export raw materials, inputs, semi-finished products, etc., to privately owned
entities in Cuba.
- Another important political signal to the Cuban people would be to license
U.S. universities and private sector entities to establish business management
training and labor rights institutes in Cuba on the condition that such entities
will be made available to all Cubans regardless of race, creed, or political
affiliation.
- Funds should be made available to NGOs for the purpose of increasing
unfettered access to the Internet and e-mail by Cuban citizens. Sites and
programs developed should run and be maintained in Cuba completely independent
of regime control and be open to all Cubans.
- To further expand the free flow of ideas, we should push for more American
news bureaus in Cuba. The more news bureaus in Cuba, the less likely it will be
that self-censorship limits reporters to meaningless stories on 1950s Chevys,
the Tropicana, and cigars. We need more reports on the dissident Dr. Oscar
Biscet, the independent libraries, and the alarming environmental damage Fidel
Castro's policies are causing on the island.
Let me make one request of any of you who may be traveling to Cuba in the
near future: Take but one peaceful action to make a difference. For example,
bring a big box of Spanish-language books with you and give them to one of the
struggling independent libraries. Make a difference. Have a purpose. Shine a
light. Please look in your heart and ask what it is you can do to provide some
glimmer of hope for the Cuban people.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald |
